So today we’re going to get a little instructional.  I’m going to tell you how to use Caffeinated Content on a free blog host like WordPress.com, and possibly even Blogger.  Unfortunately, WordPress.com doesn’t allow third-party plugins, so we have to work a bit harder to get our content out there.

To start, you’ll need to create an account and blog at WordPress.com.  For obvious reasons, keep it separate from any existing accounts.

Next, you’ll need an existing, but empty WordPress blog.  A good place to start for this would be to download XAMPP or WAMP (which basically turns your home PC into a testing webserver), but a clean install of WordPress on your hosting account will work fine too.

Install and run Caffeinated Content with your keyword choice, date choice, etc.

Now you have a temporary blog with all the posts we’re going to put on the WordPress.com free blog.  Down in the tools section of the WordPress admin menu, there is an export button.  Click it, and export all content.  Save the file somewhere you can find it in a couple minutes.

On your WordPress.com blog admin menu, go to import within the tools section.  Click WordPress.  Click browse and find the file you just saved from your temporary blog’s export, then click upload and import.

When it’s done, you’ll have an exact copy of the temporary blog hosted for free.  For Blogger, take the export file and feed it through WordPress2blogger (Google it and then import the result on your Blogger site.

One thing to keep in mind is that WordPress does have some fairly strict filters in place to check for questionable or spam content, so keep it clean.  Again, keep it separate from your normal, day to day account if you have one!

Now, as someone who has been there, I know that start up costs for a website can be very inhibitive.  As a new webmaster, it can be hard to justify the expense of software that you’ve never tried.  I want to make it as simple as possible for you to get in the program.

That’s why for a VERY limited time, I’m offering a “Pay What You Will” program for Caffeinated Content.  Yes, you heard right–pay what you feel is right, pay what you can. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t offer to give $1000 just because, you’re very welcome to.

Anyway, next time you visit this site, this offer will probably no longer be available so take advantage of it now.

Want to take the fast track to getting your blog up and running but don’t know the first thing about installing a WordPress plugin? Now I’ll do it for you.

Heck, don’t know the first thing about installing WordPress? I’ll do that for you too!

Use coupon code “SPRINGSPRING” for 25% off your cart total!

This month, there are two instant discounts.

The first will apply directly to any purchase of Caffeinated Content – The Developer’s Cut and will take an instant $100 off the purchase price.  The second, also instant, will take 50% off your entire cart IF you have two or more items (NaughtiPress, Caffeinated Content for WordPress, Caffeinated Content – The Developer’s Cut) ready for checkout.  These two coupons combine to equal some insane savings…obviously though, the discounts won’t last long…

For more information about great savings, please visit the Specials page!

The short story: I accidentally let some processes get out of hand during some cloak and dagger testing and my host didn’t like it.  They shut me off, no warning whatsoever.  Getting access to my files was next to impossible and took nearly 24 hours of phone calls.  Finally, they gave me a bare-bones VPS with SSH access to a directory of my files.  Gosh, I must be more dangerous than I thought.

Anyway, despite being a customer of VPSLink since 2006, I jumped ship and after a quick search, found VPSLatch.  Despite the odd name, they’ve proven extremely competitive.  For $35 a month, you can get a MANAGED VPS with 1024MB guaranteed RAM, 750GB transfer, 60GB disk space with cPanel thrown in for good measure.  Even better, you can use coupon code 25managedoff for 25% off for the lifetime of your account. Niiiiice.

I’m still working out bugs here and there, so if you see anything let me know please.  Most everything *should* work, but it’s never easy to switch an entire network of sites from one server to another.

Caffeinated Content – The Developer’s Cut

If you’ve read my blog recently, you’ve probably seen my post regarding the Developer’s Cut version of Caffeinated Content (http://kansieo.com).

Basically, this is the equivalent of giving away my proprietary secrets–every bit of code Caffeinated Content uses will be out there in all of it’s glory, even the bits and pieces hacked together.  It’s not at all a beautiful work of art, but it’s there for your editing pleasure.  Don’t like how Caffeinated Content’s default interface works?  Change it!  Got grand plans for a new plugin?  Build it and sell it.

Already there are people creating via the Caffeinated Content code-base.  Over at NaughtiPress.com, there is an adult webmastering plugin under construction that looks to be a game changer in that largest of all internet niches.  I’ve seen an early demo of the product and all I can say is WOW!  They’ve told me they’ll have a demo video up shortly…hopefully sooner than later!

The Nitty Gritty

I’m not going to get bogged down with a bunch of terms and conditions, mainly because that kind of stuff just isn’t fun.  Basically, twenty people will be able to grab a copy of the Caffeinated Content code-base.  Twenty people only will have the chance to create their own thing based on Caffeinated Content.

On August 18, 2010, the presale will end and I’ll begin to email the product  to the twenty lucky individuals.

Obviously, copies of this product should not be given away, but can be sold provided significant changes have been made.  I will also be opening up Kansieo.com’s member’s area for those of you who wish to distribute your newly created product through my website.

So how much is it?

No joke, this is a huge step for me.  Caffeinated Content represents hundreds of hours of development and countless hours of research and testing.  Hiring a programmer to build your own Caffeinated Content would undoubtedly cost thousands upon thousands of dollars and weeks or months of time to develop.  $5000?

Nah.  I’m hoping this will spearhead a ton of new development in an otherwise stagnant area. $1000?

Nah.  I’m hoping you’ll allow me to be an affiliate in the sale your wonderful new product. $750?

$497.  For the unencrypted code.  For the rights to modify that code and to sell your modified code uninhibited.  Hundreds of hours of work, done for you.

To sweeten the deal, a coupon worth another $300 off that price good until this weekend only: PRESALE.

So $197 for Caffeinated Content – The Developer’s Cut?  Why are you still reading?  The twenty copies are probably already gone!

Buy Now

What does this mean for you?  Well, for starters, if you know a thing or two about PHP, you can take the Caffeinated Content source code and make it work any way you want it to.  Have grand ideas that Caffeinated Content just doesn’t do?  Add ‘em!

Best of all, if you create something, you’ll be able to sell it.  Think you’ve got a hot seller on your hands?  The groundwork is already there for you to host your creation inside of Kansieo.com’s member’s area.

Already, there have been a couple of people working with the code under this program and they’re providing some interesting results.  NaughtiPress looks like a HOT product–literally.  If you’ve ever wanted to quickly dive head-first into the second largest niche on the internet, now is your chance with just a few button clicks.  Frankly, from what I’ve seen so far, this product is pure gold.  Hopefully they’ll get a video up shortly that showcases what it can do…

The bottom line is that there will only be a handful of people lucky enough to get their hands on this source code, but at the same time I want it to be priced at a point where it’s still affordable for those really interested in putting it to good use…visit the Kansieo.com member’s area and sign up…I’ll be shooting out some info on early-bird pricing shortly.

Self-explanatory…

Just watch out for Mr. Softee.

People say I’m crazy doing what I’m doing,
Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin,
When I say that I’m o.k. they look at me kind of strange,
Surely your not happy now you no longer play the game.

For those of you who don’t know, this is the first verse of John Lennon’s ‘Watching the Wheels’. Now, I’ve never been a huge Beetles fan (I’d pick Rolling Stones over the Beetles for greatest band of that era…), and am not greatly crazy for John’s solo work, but this song especially sends out a strong message to those in our career of choice.

So often, there are naysayers in the general public, friends, and even our families that question why we do what we do. They say it’ll never work, that it’s not tangible. Why give up the sure thing in your 9 to 5 job for something that is largely misunderstood and is still a new frontier?

Well, as John said,

People asking questions lost in confusion,
Well I tell them there’s no problem, only solutions.

Now, if someone can convince my wife, it’ll be a miracle…

As the post title says, I was involved in the reverse engineering of one of the most important inventions of the 20th century: the Super Tag Ink.

For those that aren’t privy to what exactly the Super Tag Ink is, it’s one of those things that the department stores put on their clothes so nobody tries to run off with them.  Yeah, one of THOSE things.  If you’re a shoplifter, chances are you’re very familiar with these things and should be involved in this project–I’ll gladly give up my position.

Anyway, my wife bought one of the kids an outfit in TJ Max (hah, one outfit?  I don’t think so–let’s take it one step further.  Shopping spree on J’s card!).  Unfortunately, the checkout clerk neglected to remove the tag on this particular outfit.  A few weeks later, I’m trying to dress the kid to send to daycare and I stumble across this hunk of plastic.  Sorry, no photos.  I didn’t decide to take pictures until after the reverse-engineering.  I can’t exactly hold a camera and do complicated important stuff like that, can I?  NO!

My first thought was to just leave it attached–what’s the harm?  In fact, it might deter some would-be child thieves…or not.  Deciding it would probably be a bit uncomfortable to the lad, my wife suggested I take i over to TJ Max and have them remove it.  Calmly, I replied with something to the effect of furthering scientific studies of ink tags or some silly tripe like that.  Basically, I just wanted to break it.

Not thinking of the risks of bodily-harm involved, I promptly got out the needle-nose pliers, a big knife and some hedge clippers (no idea why I have hedge clippers living in NYC where there are no hedges, but hey, they got the job done).  At first, my goal was to simply get the thing off the outfit.  It’d be too hard to cover up the evidence, and my wife would say something like, “I told you…!” or “Why don’t you ever listen to me?!”

After a bit of plastic surgery, I had the thing in bits and safely separated from the clothing.  No more danger of getting ink on anything but myself and the floor.  Here’s how it looked after I finally had a free hand to pick up the camera:

Sure I could have been gentle, but then this thing quite possible reanimated into a Super Tag zombie or something.  Total decapitation and dismemberment is what I was aiming for.  The next step will be to separate the parts amongst several TJ Max’s to spread the word…but I digress.

Really, I suppose I’m a bit dissapointed that this thing is no marvel of modern engineering.  A simple clutch mechanism holds the pin in, and a completely separate container holds the ink and an RFID tag (just in case it escapes, I guess).  One thing I found a bit silly was the rubber ink condom holding the glass vial:

The Ink Condom – To protect the ink vial from some sort of ink vial STD?

Hmmmm…

Dangerous Business…

I suppose maybe it protects TJ Max from lawsuits would-be shoplifters impaling themselves with glass shards while trying to remove the tag. Ahh, what a country.

Anyway, there really isn’t too much more to talk about.  It’s a simple device with one or two neat little features, but nothing to write home about!

That being said–Caffeinated Content 3.38b, today or tomorrow.

Anyway, last year, June 17, 2008, to be exact, my wife and I were gifted with a baby boy. As an added surprise, he was born with Down Syndrome. Immediately, we were hit with the full range of emotions, the usual happy giddyness that comes with having a child, the anger and frustration about not knowing about the diagnosis beforehand (a whole saga in itself), the worry about what the future will hold for him.

To this day, ten months later, I look at what is perhaps the sweetest little boy in the world and I still tear up while trying to put the “what ifs” out of my mind.

Here is an essay I recently stumbled across that sums up my thoughts and feelings quite well. The author is/was a Sesame Street writer with a son with Down Syndrome:

Health-wise, we’ve been lucky so far…through countless specialist appointments, he has been cleared of most issues associated with Down Syndrome. His heart and kidneys are good. He’s got little glasses to correct for far-sighted vision, and hopefully get rid of his eye-crossing. Through the New York State funded early-intervention program (which has been a bureaucratic horror show–it’s just now getting better), we have a handful of different therapists working with him at the house. It’s a rare day when there isn’t a therapist around for an hour or so. Even at 10 months of age, our intent is to give him the best shot at normalcy as we can.

Anyway, even so young, he has a personality that just begs to be mushed up, and he’s perfectly happy to let even perfect strangers cuddle and hold him, offering up tons of smiles and baby talk and wet, slobbery baby kisses. While he’s awake, it’s impossible to ignore him–not because he’s crying (a very rare occasion), but because he’s so cutely irresistible. Thus, the only time I seem to get work done these days is when he’s asleep.

I don’t know if anyone remembers a year and a half ago while I was still advertising on the Warrior Forum practically giving away Caffeinated Content as a WSO, I would take 10% of my sales and donate them to various charities. One of the most rewarding charities involved providing needy children with Christmas gifts and has become an annual family thing, now. In the name of Caffeinated Content, I’ve also donated a tidy sum to Autism Speaks. Now, though, I think it’s appropriate to direct a portion of future sales to one of the major Down Syndrome organizations. So that’s what I’ll be doing for the next indefinite period of time.

Strangely enough, even with all these words, this post just seems unfinished. I guess if I figure out why, I’ll revise it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve walked on both sides of the tracks.  I whole-heartedly believe in a try before you buy software system (though demo videos largely fill this void in certain niches).  I hate large software companies that put out a new and improved version of their software every year or so and charge hundreds of dollars for the upgrade (Adobe, I’m looking at you).  These days, though, now that I’ve been out scraping by in the real world for a decade or so, if I use something, I’ll pay for it.

In terms of Caffeinated Content piracy, I’m thinking of dropping the registration requirement.  In other words, if you have the script, you will be able to run it without it calling home to tell me what’s going on.  This’ll remove the single largest support request I get… but also affords me no way to attempt to keep people honest.

I’ve also resigned myself to the fact that if it’s written in PHP and given to a 3rd party, there is no good way to secure it.  All PHP securing methods are largely innefectual and broken by nature…

Does anyone have any thoughts on this matter?

Heavenly ski resort at Lake Tahoe (I can't tell if the lake is tilting or if it's just the way I'm holding the camera...)

Unfortunately, they hadn’t received fresh snow for almost a month, but conditions were good nonetheless.  I guess the grooming team is able to push snow where it needs it most.  Anyway…you definitely can’t beat the 45F temperature at nearly 10,000′.

So I went to Lake Tahoe with a pinched nerve in my neck that radiated across my shoulder and down my left arm.  I’ve been dealing with it since just after Christmas, trying to do what I can, but sitting seems to aggravate it most.  No over the counter pain relief helped at all.  About a week before my departure, I went to a local chiropractor in hopes of relieving some of the pain before my trip–after all, I can’t imagine a ski trip without skiing would be very much fun…    Anyway, he was able to take some of the pressure off of the nerve, providing some relief…unfortunately, apparently my shoulder muscles are all out of whack, seemingly pulling in the opposite direction they’re supposed to.  Well, it’s a good thing my Lake Tahoe hotel (Harrah’s) had a nice spa with some awesome massage therapists who were able to relax those uncooperative muscles to make them at least semi-usable.  So it was ski during the day, massage in the afternoon, eat a small dinner (tough at Harrah’s awesome Forest Buffet) and then crash before having a chance to spend any money at the casino…probably a good thing!

Now that I’m back, I went to the chiropractor this morning, and he did some adjusting and deep tissue stuff…overall I’m feeling better.  It’s not terrible pain for the most part, it’s just always there, and it makes doing stuff with my left arm difficult.  Not to mention it gets worse as I sit longer.

So that’s that.  I’m going to try and rip through the pile of support tickets I have before it becomes too aggravated, if it feels like I’m ignoring you, I’m not…just ask my family.

Oh yeah, I’ve got some cool stuff to show for my time away.  It wasn’t all playtime, honest!

Friday, I’ll be flying out of here (Shittown, USA.  AKA NYC) to Lake Tahoe for a few days of skiing and a few nights of work.  Since I’m going alone, leaving the family at home, you can expect a new release of Caffeinated Content to show up soon upon my return to this uncivilized city of corrupt stockbrokers and government officials.  For some reason, my wife isn’t nearly as excited about my trip as I am…oh well.

I’m excited to take my skiboards out on a real mountain–yes, that’s right, I said skiboards.  If you like to ski, these puppies will up your game phenomonally.  Heck, if you’ve never skied before, a pair of these will have you rockin’ the intermediate hills in a day.

If anyone happens to be in the area, hit me up.  I’ll buy your Heavenly lift ticket ($82, first couple of people to email me get in) and we can talk shop on the lift.  You’re responsible for your own equipment (as well as your own well-being), though, so this is not an offer for unseasoned skiers/boarders.

Heavenly Ski Resort

Anyway, I’m working on the support tickets that came in over the weekend now. However, chances are that the rest of the winter weekend support will be slow.

I do my best to balance family life and Caffeinated life, but when it comes down to the wire, the family will always come first!

Ps: if this post looks like crap, it’s because I’m posting via BlackBerry, unfortunately not the new BB Storm!

Just ran out of the office to get a bite to eat.  Innocent, yes…this time!

The limo was trying to make a turn into the wall of tourists crossing the street and I just happened to be at the end of a good portion of them.  Luckily, I walk fast and he was going slow, so I was just brushed by his front bumper, and his tire grazed my heel, taking off my shoe and leaving a black streak down my jeans.

He stopped the car, rolled down the window and said, “Sorry man, I didn’t see you there.”  Sauntering up to his window, shoe in hand, I said, “Dude, I’m wearing a bright red jacket…”  I took his plate number but since nothing is bleeding or broken so I probably not going to report him…but tomorrow I’m locking myself in the house in front of the computer!

Sounds like a good idea right?  Well, it was supposed to be.

I got the ladder set up, picked up a set of lights, grabbed the staple gun…and shot myself right in the finger.  No idea how–it was a mechanical stapler that requires a fairly hard pull on the trigger to go off.  Regardless, I had a staple effectively stapling my skin to my finger bone…it’d probably be cool if it didn’t happen to me, or if it was two weeks ago during Halloween.

Tried pulling it out with my fingers with no luck, got a flat screwdriver with the intention of prying it out, but had no leverage.  Finally, I was able to maneuver a pair of pliers enough to pull it out…amazing how well the thing was stuck.  I cleaned it up as best as I could, wrapped my finger in gauze and tape, and put up about 9,000,000 feet of lights and other decorations.

Pain meter: No cursing, so it didn’t hurt all that bad.

The only downfall so far is that it seems to be extremely slow…

Either way, Caffeinated Content still works perfectly.

We’ll see, I guess.

Update (10/30/2008): Two days waiting and then selected to be on a jury, so I have to report back again on Monday morning.  I’m sure the first half of next week, at the least, is shot.  Kew Gardens Courthouse guest wifi sucks–50% of the websites I tried to visit are blocked, including Youtube, so no development was done in that regard.  But at least they have wifi!

Update 2 (11/06/2008): Finally done with jury duty.  Real life can now resume!

First, let me tell you why I got a MacBook Pro, and why I was the first on the block to get the newest (shipped yesterday, in stores today–they didn’t even have them out when I arrived, I had to beg!). Previously, I had always put together my own machines (with the exception of a laptop here and there–latest being an Asus EeePC which is awesome in it’s own right, but way too small for PHP development). Today, something changed. I wanted something that just worked, worked well, and could do everything I threw at it and more. Enough of those chincy Vista crap outs (got rid of Vista, all my Windows PCs run XP at this point), and frankly, enough tweaking and modifying my linux installs to get it to play nice with everything else. So I should have gotten a MacBook? Nah…with the Pro, I’ll have the extra firepower to play some Windows games with it’s built in GeForce 9600 (or save battery life with the integrated 9400M–cool beans).

Anyway. Here’s my unboxing (click the pics for a bigger view):

Here is the spiffy new box. Notice how small it is compared to previous packaging.

Magsafe, ethernet, Firewire 800, two USB, mini DisplayPort, audio in and out, and an ExpressCard slot along with the battery meter.

I had a little trouble at this point getting the cover back on. It seems the little tabs on the cover don’t have anything on the case to align with, therefore you just have to get lucky! Could be a problem for someone changing a battery often…

If you look closely, it’s glossy enough to see the unfinished paint job on the wall behind me–how embarrassing.

So there you have it. The new MacBook Pro 15″ unboxed, up and running. It’ll take some time for me to get into the general workings of a new operating system (I haven’t used MacOS since…oh…1995), but I’ll be sure to post more impressions of it after I do! Of course, I’ve written this entire post on the thing, including the picture uploads, so I’m going full force.

A couple things I’ve noticed while taking pictures. As I said above, the LCD is highly glossy. I’m interested in seeing how well it’ll handle outdoors use. There are a few extremely minor flaws in the anodization…nothing I’m going to worry about. Also, FireFox has crashed three times during this posting. Maybe I’ll try Safari next time.

Next up, installing my development environment so I can get some productivity going on…I’ll probably start with a nice simple XAMPP install, but we’ll see. Anyone know of a good Mac PHP/text editor?

Update: The strange black thing? It looks like an Apple-branded napkin. Maybe it’s a mousepad. Or a microfiber cleaning cloth for this insanely glossy screen. Yeah, that’s it.

Update 2: Added a couple of notes.

Not to be so!  Saturday was a slow day, though I was on baby duty because my wife came down with a nasty cold courtesy of Ethan.  Sunday morning, Anne Marie was about to leave for her mother’s house when she discovered that someone had gotten into our car sometime during the night and took our GPS and Sirius radio.  Thankfully they didn’t break the window or door, but it goes to show how easily a crackhead can get into a car (shouldn’t be surprised, I used to do it as a daily routine when half of the door internals rusted out on my first vehicle, an ’86 Toyota pickup.  Yes, using a coathanger to open your car door while at the mall gets you quite a few accusing stares…).  Definitely could have been worse!

So Monday, I came down with the cold, and was twice as bad yesterday, and just now clearing up today…going to start quarantining the kids when they get sick.

Oh well!